Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when her family was uproofted from their home and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp--with ten thousand other Japanese Americans. Along with searchlight towers and armed guards, Manzanar ludicrously featured cheerleaders, Boy Scouts, sock hops, baton twirling lessons, and a dance band called the Jive Bombers, who would play any popular song except the nation's No.1 hit:"Don't Fence Me In."
Farewell to Manzanar is the true story of one spirited Japanese American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced detention...and of a native--born American child who discovered what it was like to grow up behine bared wire in the United States.